[mythtv-users] Settings scheduler to record HD shows on HD tuner before falling back to analog tuners

[Kevin Kuphal]

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:10 AM, kanetse at gmail.com <kane.tse at gmail.com>wrote:

> Is there a way to set up the MythTV schedule to record different shows
> on different tuners, depending on their transmission quality?  For
> example, in my area, most stations are transmitted on two channels, a
> digital one, and an analog one.  The digital channel will carry the
> same shows as the analog channels, but in HD, if available.  My
> current setup sends the analog channels to a PVR150 or PVR500, while
> my digital/HD channels are captured via firewire from one of two
> Motorola DCT boxes.
>
> When a show is shown in SD-only (on both analog and digital channels),
> I'd like the show to be captured on the analog PVRs.  This saves both
> disk space and keeps the firewire boxes free for HD recordings and/or
> live TV.  If the show is available in HD, then it should be recorded
> from the firewire boxes.
>
> The problem that I have noticed is that about once a week, MythTV will
> opt to record a show on the PVR150, where an HD version was available
> and a firewire box was free at the time.  I've been manually
> inspecting the list of upcoming recordings, and had to "force" a few
> recordings into a firewire box, about once or twice a week.  However,
> I have missed a couple here and there, such as when The Simpsons went
> to HD for the first time last night.
>
>
> Here are some solutions I've tried, which don't seem to work:
>
> 1) Setting the channel priorities for the digital channels doesn't
> work, because then SD shows (like the local news) are recorded on the
> firewire boxes.
>
> 2) Settings the preferred tuner (in MythWeb) also doesn't work,
> because if another higher priority show is already scheduled to use
> the "preferred" firewire box, the MythTV will default to the next
> available lowest numbered tuner, which is the PVR150 (SD).
>
> 3) Setting the HD show only to record from one specific digital
> channel only doesn't work, because I have time-shifted channels
> available, so MythTV  can recrd from a different channel if necessary.
>  Furthermore, it's a nice fallback that if a show really can't be
> recorded from a digital channel, it will fall back to the SD channels
> as a last resort.
>
> What I'm looking for is a way to tell the scheduler to record the HD
> version where possible, before falling back to the SD version.
> However, if no HD broadcast is available go right to the analog tuner.


Probably the best option I can think of is this:

1.  Create a custom recording rule to record the show only on the HD channel
only when the show is marked as HD.  Set this with a slightly higher
priority (maybe not necessary since I think there is already an option for
HD shows to get a bump in priority)
2.  Create a second rule to record the show on the SD channel.
3.  Set the dupe checking so that the rules look for previous and current
recordings which should allow the first rule matched to win.

Myth should then record using rule 1 when the show is marked as HD and then
rule 2 on SD when it is not.

The only problem I see is that, of course, you only have the "HD" designator
from the scheduling information to know if the show is HD on the HD channel
or not.  Myth has no other way to make this determination so I think this is
your best option.  Myth isn't a mindreader so it can't know any other way if
the show is HD on an HD channel.

Kevin
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